Absorption Distortion

Chapter 2

The leaves scuffled beneath Luna's dirty white shoes as she skidded down a steep drop to hide behind a tree. She was dirty, her clothes were torn and she was out of breath. The Fernbrooke Forest was dense in shrubs and trees, it made it hard to just simply walk through the forest, let alone run through it. She leaned hard against the base of a tall Eucalyptus tree, hearing dogs off in the distance barking. Luna was cold and shivering, "Get up... get up," She quietly coached herself, motivating her to get up and continue moving. She was heading west, not because she knew where she was going, simply to get out of the forest and she didn't know where to go. Her brown hair was tied up, but falling out as she tiredly ran. Knowing how dense the forest is after reading books in isolation with Fernbrooke, she knew she had a long time to go before she could feel safe or see someone outside of Fernbooke. As she turned back to see how far the white lights were behind her, she couldn't see them anymore and only heard a distant barking, but without looking where she was going, her foot caught on the roots of a tree and sent her over a ridge, forcing her to roll down the hillside. She scraped her arms and face along the bushes and shrubs as she fell. As she fell onto the next level of the forest, she land her back against a tree, her head swung back and knocked herself unconscious in the process. She was too tired to fight it to continue moving and passed out against the base of a tree, her tired body falls in front of the tree. Luna faced the base and with her hair brushed to the side, a small microchip on the back of her neck can be seen. A small red light can be seen turning green. Luna laid in the dirt, her scrubs covered in the darkness of the forest.

If Luna had a map, she'd see that she had fallen half way to the forest edge and she'd be able to hear the sounds of the three nearby campers. "Come on man, light the fire again," Nathan gestered, sloppily hitting Nick in the arm. "Yeah Nick," Finch added, the three guys all went to Canuck high school together and since graduating, they worked in places around town but always remained close friends. They decided to take the weekend off to go camping as the lack of cloud cover provided an amazing star show. Plus getting out of town was easy surrounded by the nearby forest. They had the fire off to take in the night sky but decided it was time to hit the hay, especially with the two empty bottles of Jacks thrown into the firepit. Nick lit the fire and sat down to get the heat. "I can't hear the dogs anymore," Finch said, looking towards the dark forest. Nathan shrugged, grabbing the third bottle of Jacks, "I'm taking this to bed," he said, crawling into his tent. "Hey man... don't drink all that," Finch said, running into the tent after Nathan. Nick chuckled at the two's thirst for alcohol, he wasn't a massive drinker but he had a few and was still feeling the buzz. He was gazing into the fire when he heard a noise in the forest. As he turned his head he saw a dim beam of light in the distance flash across the trees. "Whoa.." He murmured, standing up to get a better view. "What was that?" he asked out loud, soon realizing Nathan and Finch were still bickering over ownership of the remaining Jack Daniels to notice anything. He moved closer to the direction of the light, approaching his tent in the small clearing they had for the campfire. The light flashed again. "What is that?" He queried to himself, grabbing his torch out of his backpack and walking into the forest. The beam of light was intermittent, and hidden within the dense trees. Nick stumbled at first, tripping over a few fallen small branches but managed to catch himself on a tree. The beams stopped when he lifted his head, but he kept heading in that direction. Curiosity got the better of him, and he continued on foot without telling Nathan or Finch where he was going. He heard the dogs barking louder as he moved forward and stopped, not wanting to be apart of a police investigation or so he would presume. He had moved far enough to turn back and see the camp fire in the far distance. He looked around with his torch, sweeping the forest floor not to bring too much attention to himself but he couldn't see anything. He couldn't help but worry somehow the camp fire was burning within the forest, but he couldn't see any sign of fire. The alcohol was in his blood stream so he stopped to focus on the sound and the barking to make sure he wasn't imaging things. He leaned against a tree, feeling a little dizzy and put his hands on his knees to compose himself, dropping his flashlight which rolled down past the tree in front of him.